Does Having Links on this blog Hurt or Help?

[Prime85]

Hello,

I created a wordpress blog a while back, http://plastic-bins.com/

If you go into one of the pages on the blog (for example: http://plastic-bins.com/plastic-shelf-bins/ ) you will notice a link after the text/content telling you where you can purchase the stuff that is talked about on that page.

There is one link back to the e-commerce site on every category page on the blog. Does anyone know if these links will help me or hurt me in terms of ranking in the SERPS?

Thanks

[DTOSI]

Well plastic-bins.com does not have a page rank, but it is definitely relevant to your website. I really don't think it would hurt your rankings. I would choose a related long tail keyword that is not too difficult but still has some search volume (that you are not optimizing on the actual website) and optimize for it on the blog. Try to get visitors to the blog through that keyword and then send them to an internal landing page on your website via anchor text with a keyword you are optimizing for on that internal page. Maybe that could help generate some traffic and conversions...

[ChristopherM]

An absolute pleasure, please keep us posted and let us know if our advise assisted you with your rankings.

Good luck!

[Prime85]

Thanks to you both

[ChristopherM]

Good point Oleg!

[ChristopherM]

Hi Prime85,

There's quite a bit to this actually. I see that the link to "Plastic Bins", actually clicks through to monsterbins.com, ie. a different website. The crux of the matter here is that a link from the plastic-bins.com/plastic-shelf-bins/ website to the monsterbins.com website will add value provided the plastic-bins.com page has a decent authority and is relavant to the page it is linking too. So, in other words, you can use the Mozbar to see the page authority of the plastic-bins.com/plastic-shelf-bins/ page and compare that to the page it's linking too. Ideally, you'd want the authority to be the same or more on the plastic-bins.com/plastic-shelf-bins/ page and to ensure that the content is relevant (not duplicate either).

If you're hoping for those links to offer value through to monsterbins.com, I would suggest taking time to carefully look at the SEO on the pages, I see issues in your meta data and other areas. The SEOmoz On-Page Optimization tool is a fantastic tool to assist you with this.

I hope that helps?

[OlegKorneitchouk]

Looks like you vary up the anchor text and link to page - if you didn't do this, it might be considered sitewide (which is no bueno). The way you have it now (and since you don't have that many category pages) should help with SERPs.